How to Spring Clean Your House
After months of winter weather and dull days, now is the perfect time to start preparing your home for the warmer weather. Traditionally spring is a time for growth, and spring cleaning where we take out the old and bring in the new.
Perhaps you just need to declutter your home to simplify your life or you feel that your décor needs refreshing. If so, spring is the ideal time to think about new ideas that have benefits for keeping your home tidy with minimal long term maintenance.
Getting started can be overwhelming but creating a list of what you would like to do first or just focusing on a particular room may make the prospect of a clear out less daunting. This time of year is not just about cleaning, it is also a chance to give your home a new look and seasonal update.
Getting Ready for the Spring Season
To embrace spring, lightening the colour palette of your interior with cheerful shades can give a brighter and fresher feel to your décor. Introducing colour through soft furnishings like rugs or cushions can create a feeling of spring renewal.
Colours such as pastel greens, blues, pinks and yellows will tone well with many other colours that you may already have in your home and will refresh any living space.
With the clocks moving forward to British Summer Time, you could think about buying a new clock that will complement your décor. Clocks are a functional product but many are now decorative and, design wise, can add balance to a room.
You need to take into consideration size, colour and design and with an abundance of choice you are sure to be able to find the clock that will suit your requirements.
A decorative tray or bowl may be utilised to keep your keys, loose change, remote controls or any other smaller items that are more liable to get lost.
These can easily be moved out of the way if needed whilst keeping everything together.
Clear, Organise, Store
Decluttering your home can have beneficial effects not only from a practical point of view but also for your state of mind. People can feel out of control if they have surrounded themselves with more things than they can manage. A little clearing of clutter can be quite therapeutic. Maybe taking “before” and “after” photos will help you to see the progress that you have made.
There are so many stylish yet practical pieces of furniture that can be utilised to keep any living area neat and tidy. Maybe try to invest in pieces that have built in storage yet are elegant enough to uplift your décor.
Bedroom: To keep your bedroom organised you need to incorporate pieces like blanket boxes and ottomans. These are multipurpose items of furniture that can clear away clutter.
Under bed storage is a great option to consider particularly if you need to store away seasonal items such as luggage, clothing or a duvet.
Changing to a lower tog duvet now that the weather is becoming warmer means that you need to stow your winter duvet out of sight.
Divan sets with drawers, ottoman beds and sofa beds will all provide you with a multitude of choices.
Nightstands, chest of drawers and wardrobes give you a plethora of storage options – from adjustable shelves, extra hanging rails to having the space for storing shoes so that your floor is kept clear.
Consider a neutral toned basket that is conveniently placed to take care of all your laundry or children’s toys.
Lounge and dining: Display cabinets with adjustable shelving, sideboards and bookcases provide that all important storage that you will require to keep your living space clutter free.
Console tables and coffee tables, particularly those that have extra under shelves, are useful everyday pieces to have in your lounge that can help to maintain cleanliness. Many entertainment units now have cable ports that are excellent for keeping the cables tangle-free and out of sight.
Storage footstools serve a dual purpose that will allow you to tidy things away as well as provide extra seating.
Home Office Space: Office storage cabinets, hanging shelving and desk organisers are items that more of us now use after seeing an increase in home working over the past few years.
Consolidating items into baskets and boxes will help keep your workspace clear and organised, maintaining productivity.
Office range Flooring: Using a lightly damp microfiber mop is an ideal way to maintain your wooden floor on a regular basis. A vacuum should preferably have a hard floor fitting. If you need to polish your floor then use a water based or urethane based floor polish that will renew and refresh your flooring.
Vacuuming and spot cleaning should be enough to maintain your carpet. Light blotting and using cleaner or soaps sparingly is usually enough to revive your carpet. Testing cleaning products in a small, inconspicuous area before use will ensure that your carpet is colourfast.
Charities such as the British Heart Foundation can offer free of charge collection services. Your old furniture will then be sold through their charity shops that are nationwide, with proceeds going towards life saving research.
Looking after the environment and recycling as much as possible is a cause close to many people’s hearts.
Now recycling services, run by companies like Clearabee provide a collection service that can be booked for a date that suits you.
Local councils, in England and Wales, will also arrange a special collection of your unwanted
furniture. Recycling furniture is a fundamental element of diverting waste from landfill.
Staying clutter free
It is, perhaps, most important to remember to work room by room and to think about what you wish to clear. Sometimes you do need to remove the things that you no longer wear, need or use and spring is an excellent time to begin the process.
Once you have put the effort into decluttering your home, it ought to be easier to prevent clutter from returning. Little and often will be the order of the day and you may never need to feel overwhelmed by untidiness again.
Find inspiration in-store
A good way to choose the best pieces of furniture or homeware accessories to bring in the new is to visit one of our stores to find out what we have available in stock. This includes large quantities of living, dining and bedroom furniture.
Cousins offer a vast selection of the latest designs in furniture and furnishings so visit us in-store or online and one of our friendly sales experts will help you.
We’ve been busy with our own Spring Clean in our Shrewsbury store, making way for the new with our recently refurbished area!
